Manhood Challenge

Seduced by the smoke. That's the long and short of it. I mean, a guy's innocently putting one foot in front of another, trying to do something right in his life, when he walks into a fog. A super-delicious fog, mind you, a tangy, grilled, meaty fog of smoke.

It billows down the sidewalk. Then the wind shifts and blows it sideways across Broadway toward the Chula Vista Center. Ah. Now I see where it's coming from. Two blackened, cut-in-half 44-gallon drums sitting on a trolley above the sidewalk. Here on H Street, a real live outdoor barbecue pit! A guy with tongs lifts flaps of meat, then slaps them down on the other side. Each time he does, he disappears in a cloud.

"So-o-o good," says one of two guys feeling their way out of the fog. "Those were ribs, man."

What the heck? I climb three steps under a black-and-maroon canopy and step into a little cream-colored-brick place.

'Course I'm supposed to be doing something else. I've come to scout an, uh, easy chair. For Carla. To snooze in, in front of the TV. But I worry. Get her a comfy chair and it's official: Youth Has Fled. Sayonara, Big Adventures, sailing to Santiago, ballooning to Belgrade, painting in Paris...Eating will give me time to think, anyway.

But then how can you bypass those ribs cooking outside? Here we're talking $7--$9. Quarter chicken and two (pork) ribs are $8.75 with cornbread and two small sides (everything's a dollar more for dinner but comes with medium sides). A hot link and two ribs goes for $7.75, ribs or rib-tips for $8.00, BBQ or teriyaki half-chicken $7.00, and the "triple play" (tri-tip, rib and chicken) is $10.25. They even have lasagna for $7.25.

He points to a chart on the counter I hadn't noticed. Today, Thursday, is "rib-tip dinner." Aha. It includes two medium (not small) sides plus cornbread. Seven bucks, not eight.

"That's the one," I say. I order a side of candied yams and, oh yes, coleslaw to freshen up between rib-tips.

"Like the sauce normal or hot?"

It's a challenge to manhood more than anything else, so I say "hot" and get a can of soda ($1.25) and head for a table in the sunny corner.

Then, oh wow. The rib-tips and the cornbread come in a polystyrene box, with each side in its own separate pot. There must be a dozen chunky rib-tips. The barbecue sauce is sweet, tangy, but not too sharp. Friendly, but peppery hot. Thank goodness for the cornbread.

I chomp into my rib-tips and savor that sauce. One or two of the tips are a little chewy, but the whole meal is a deal. Deal-icious, you might say. And oh, that cornbread. So fresh and crumbly.

"We make it here from scratch every morning," says this guy Kashif. KC, everyone calls him. I ask him about the party out back.

"That's just my cousins. We're all family here. Always talking, arguing, having a good time."

Can't believe I haven't noticed this place before. KC says his parents, Lance and Robin, opened up in 2001. "Eleven years ago, my mom started making cakes at home," he says. "It became a catering business. Soon, she couldn't fit it all into our kitchen. They decided to find another location, and my dad said, 'Well, why don't we make it a barbecue takeout while we're about it?' So they went looking, and the Lord blessed us with this place."

A car parks right outside the window. "That's my mom," says KC. And soon Robin's in, joining us at the table. "It was difficult at first," she says, "but we got a lot of support from family, friends, and our church -- the New Creation Church at Alta Dena. And God. He gave Lance a vision for this business. As a foundation for creating a family legacy."

We chat on. Nephews, Zarak, Lamarr, and others join in every now and then. I end up buying one of Robin's sweet-potato-cream cheesecakes ($1.50). It makes a nice ending. Man, I'm stuffed. Bloated. Outside, the skies are clear. Zarak has closed down the pit for the afternoon. Across the road, somewhere, is a chair I can't afford. So maybe...Yeah. I'll just bring her a rack of ribs. And a bunch of La-Z-Boy brochures. That should cover the bases, right?